I’m still wading through the day with a cough and a smile, but things seem to be taking a long long time. I’m certainly not 100% yet, but much better than I was at the end of last week. This is good, I think.

We also had the all clear with Joel. He had his GP appointment this morning with the new awesome doctor at the surgery. This is the bloke I spoke to in December when it was looking like I had a nut allergy, and he was brilliant with Joel. He spent the first few minutes just talking to Joel and completely ignoring me – which, to be honest, I thought was cool. Joel really seemed to appreciate being asked what was up, rather than having me say. I filled in the few remaining blanks and the doctor came to the very sensible “probably due to a winter bug” conclusion. Which is almost certainly the case. I stopped giving him calpol and he’s not fainted or coughed or anything. This too, is all good, I think.

I also got my appointment to see the lovely heart people in Southport. At least, I think that’s their official title. Off to see them next Tuesday, so no exercising until at least next Wednesday. I’ve no idea what they’ll say, but I suppose the possible conclusions range from laughing me out of the clinic for wasting their time to… well… them not. Or one of about a billion things in between. Regardless, it’s probably good to have these things checked at my “dodgy” age (my Doctor’s description, believe it or not!)

Other than that, I’ve been trying to get through the day and knock things off the todo list that grew massively last week. I think that list will grow forever unless I do some serious pruning soon.

Monday nights are Cubs and Scouts for Joel and Lily. So I sneaked my walk in for the exchange between the two. I walked Lily to Scouts, picked up Joel from Cubs, turned around and headed back – 4km in total. The walk out with Lily was slightly brisker than the walk back, but then Joel had been enjoying an evening of exercising, and so perhaps was already a bit tired.

So we’re all a bit better, and hopefully will be bright-eyed and bushy tailed for when Jude gets back on Thursday. Happy days.

Oh, and apropos nothing at all, I came across a clip of The Stone Roses playing “Fools Gold” from the Made of Stone film. It’s such a brilliant live track I made the children sit through it! Poor things… If you do watch it, make sure you at least watch the first minute or so, and then from about 10 minutes in as it hurtles towards a crescendo. Both the concert and the film premier were unforgettable.